Tired of rotating the same ol’ dinner menu?
Here’s a quick and easy dinner that will throw some
international flair into your evening meal.
Even better, the price for this entrée for 4 hungry patrons
is a mere $9.
I came across this little gem while living in Germany.
I was super blessed in living next to the sweetest friend,
who just also happened to be a great cook.
One night while eating dinner with the neighbors, my sweet
friend had made yet another amazing meal and I had to have the recipe – even if
it was written in German!
When I asked her for the recipe, she laughed, walked over to
the spice cabinet, and pulled out a little spice packet by Knorr.
She said the grocery store was loaded with
all different flavors and types – you just add meat and maybe a vegetable or
two and voila!
So basically it’s like the German version of Hamburger
Helper, but with really tasty results!
Today I’m doing a quick tutorial on our favorite – HackfleischSchafskäse-Auflauf .
The literal
translation is Meat Sheep Cheese Casserole, but don’t panic.
It’s basically a ground meat and cheesy potato
casserole, and there won’t be any leftovers.
Here’s what you’ll need:
300g (about 1 pound)
ground meat (at least 85% lean)
350g (1.5 cups) diced
potatoes (Yukons are my favorite)
200 ml ( ¾ to 1 cup)
half and half
200 ml (¾ to 1 cup)
water
200g (about a cup) of crumbled Feta cheese
That’s it!
No worries about getting your hands on the spice packet - there’s a company on Amazon that sells these packets for $2.49 each, which is a pretty
decent price.
So, you don’t have to hop a flight to Germany to get this
little packet, although I won’t try and stop you if that’s your excuse to go…
Here’s what you do…
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
Grab your favorite dutch oven (or any sauce pan that can be used
on the stove top as well as the oven).
Using your dutch oven on the stove top at medium heat, throw
in your ground meat and brown it, but don’t drain.
Add your half & half and water.
Add your spice packet and stir well to mix.
Add your potatoes to the pot and mix.
Let it hang out on the stove top for about 5
minutes.
Just before placing your pot into the oven, add your
crumbled feta.
Now it’s ready to bake!
Place it in the oven (no lid) for @30 to 35 minutes.
Once your potatoes are nice and soft and the cheese is just
starting to have a nice caramel color, its ready!
Here’s one of the munchkins’ plates, ready for the table.
(yes, this is vintage Fiesta…$2.99 at Goodwill.
You know I had to throw something vintage into this post…)
I always blanch some green beans to go along with this, and
all plates are empty at the end of the meal.
I’ve made this many times for dinner guests and although
they were hesitant at the initial thought of a German meal, they have all loved
every bite of this.
Other great Knorr meal packets that I would recommend are
Hack-Reis Topf (tastes similar to stuffed bell peppers – it’s delicious!) and
Kottbullar (Swedish meatballs – another huge favorite with the kids!). They also have a packet for Ratatouille, but I’ve
never tried it…if you dare to give it a whirl, let me know how it goes!
The easiest translator for cooking with these packets is
simply Google Language. It’s pretty accurate and of course it’s free.
If you do decide to put Hackfleisch Schafskäse-Auflauf on
the table one evening, please let me know how it goes.
Until next time…Prost!
('cheers' in German!)
Here's who we're hanging out with this week... Join us!
